• "Faster repatriation" promises Di Maio. Lamorgese ensures: health checks on who arrives
  • Migrants, Lamorgese flies to Tunis: "Concerned about increasing arrivals"
  • Lamorgese: accelerate collaboration with Libya, migrant detention centers must be cleared

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04 August 2020

It is "imminent" to strengthen the contingent of soldiers already destined to watch over the border between Italy and Slovenia. The Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said this in a meeting this morning at the Interior Ministry with Senator Tatjana Rojc and the Honorable Debora Serracchiani, underlining that from the ministry there is "utmost attention to the migratory phenomenon in the north-east" .

During the meeting, the minister updated the parliamentarians on the ongoing initiatives to strengthen the effectiveness of border control services, also through a more intense collaboration with the Slovenian government.

Returns to Tunisia will
resume from August 10th. Charter flights will resume from August 10th for the repatriation of Tunisians who land in Italy and who were interrupted during the lockdown. The Interior Ministry said by stressing that the flights will respect the agreements currently in force with the government of Tunis, i.e. two planes per week each with a maximum of 40 people on board, therefore a total of 80 migrants per week.

In fact, some charter flights have already been carried out in the last few weeks in which the influx of migrants from Tunisia has exploded, with dozens of daily landings in Lampedusa. From 16 July, in fact, 5 flights have taken place which have allowed the total repatriation of 95 Tunisians. The government of Tunis has in fact asked that on these planes - as on the one already scheduled for Thursday - there were no more than 20 citizens per flight. From 10 August, however, the terms provided for in the agreement will be returned. From June 1 to August 3, the Interior Ministry says, a total of 266 people were repatriated: 116 in Tunisia and 103 in Albania.

EU: Safe countries list will be evaluated
The list of safe third countries for the return of migrants is an option that "will certainly be evaluated" by the European Commission as part of the new asylum package, "however at this stage it is not possible to comment on the content of the new agreement ". So a spokesman for the community executive. 

Yesterday, the foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, had a phone call with the EU commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policies Olivér Várhelyi. The migration situation and the recent landings in Italy from Tunisia are at the center of the talks. Várhelyi reiterated maximum support for the action of the Italian government. For its part, Di Maio has asked that the EU also equip itself with a list of safe countries "as also done by Italy", in order to "speed up European cooperation on migration". The goal is to empower the whole EU also on the return front, because, Di Maio reiterated in Várhelyi, "our southern border is a European border".